Mako A. Nagasawa
The Simplistic Accounts The Problem of Human Language Arius and Arianism The Council of Nicea, 325 AD Anti-Nicene and Pro-Nicene Movements Athanasius Logic The Council of Constantinople, 381 AD The Nicene Legacy
Emperor Constantine (313 337 AD) Favored Christianity Forced the Nicene Council to happen Emperor Theodosius (379 393 AD) Policed Nicene Orthodoxy Orthodoxy is a political invention
Heresy #1: Gnosticism (1 st 3 rd centuries) Jesus was not truly human Gnosticism vs. 1 John, Gospel of John Marcion/Valentinian/Gospel of Thomas vs. Irenaeus Heresy #2: Arianism (4 th century) Jesus was not truly divine Arius vs. Athanasius Orthodox Motivation Defend the doctrine of the Person of Jesus Result: Doctrine of the Trinity, Nicene Creed
God is Father, Jesus is Son Then: There was a time when the Son was not when God was not a Father (Arius) Now: Is God male? Why use the male pronouns? Now: Jesus is Son of God but not God (Jehovah s Witnesses) Now: God is Father, Jesus is Son, and (LDS) Now: God is Love, Love is God
Plato s cosmology (Timaeus, 360 BC) Dualist Kosmos noetos: eternal, unchanging Forms (intelligible) Kosmos aisethetos: physical, changing things (sensible)
Plato s cosmology (Timaeus, 360 BC) The One (true God) Above and apart from creation Beyond all knowledge and being (no ousia or physis) The Demiurge (craftsman/creator, malevolent) Imposed order on pre-existing material (eternal matter) Made the gods, who made the mortals (Timaeus 41d) Humans Souls (eternal, superior) Bodies (temporary, inferior) Life is for the purification of the soul Death is where the soul leaves body, is amalgamated back to the stars, or is reincarnated for another try
What is the Son s Relation to the Father? Ektisen Created (Prov.8:22) Genna Begotten (Prov.8:25 26), First born of all creation (Col.1:15) The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. From everlasting I was established (created, LXX), From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, When there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills I was brought forth (begotten, LXX); While He had not yet made the earth and the fields, Nor the first dust of the world. (Proverbs 8:22 26)
What Word to Use? Ousia (Latin essentia/substantia) Essence/Substance/Being of a material substance Primary substance (Aristotle, Categories 2b5) Inheritance as substance (Gospel of Luke 15:11 24) Gnostics used the word homoousios in a semi-material sense Hypostasis (Latin substantia) Substance/Existence of knowable beings Prosopon (Latin personae) Mask/Face of actors in the theater Don t words deliver content when you use them? Is God a material substance? Are persons temporary masks?
Arius, born in Libya (Berber?) Taught by Lucian of Antioch Ordained as a presbyter in Antioch Returned to Alexandria Sided with Meletius Excommunicated by bishop Peter in 311 AD Reinstated by bishop Achillas in 313 AD, made an elder Father-Son relation: temporal origin and subordination The Father is greater than I (Jn.14:28) The firstborn of all creation (Col.1:15) God brought me forth (Pr.8:22 26) Fighting Sabellius: Accused bishop Alexander of modalism
Arius Backdrop: Modalism Sabellius Excommunicated by pope Callixtus I, 220 AD God is one substance (ousia) with three faces/masks (prosopa) FSSp are perceived by the believer (Trinity of manifestations), but are not God s true nature (Trinity of essence) Implied Results Salvation? True Knowledge of God?
Arius Backdrop: Modalism Paul of Samosata (deposed, 269 AD) said the Father and Son are homoousios (same substance) Condemned at the Synods of Antioch (264 268 AD) Which also condemned the use of homoousious in the context of a semi-material portrayal of Father and Son
Arius cosmology (Thalia, 3 Letters, quotations) Creator The Father, unbegotten The Son, begotten from the Father s will, from nothing, made the world Humans Salvation Union with the Son? Moral exemplar atonement? Implied Results Protecting monotheism? Salvation? True knowledge of God?
Emperor Constantine s role Motivations Funded travel Attended but had no vote Invited 1800 bishops (1000 Eastern and 800 Western ) Later attempted to enforce by deposing bishops from office, but largely ineffective, and flipflopped
Attendees: May 20 June 19, 325 AD 318 bishops (majority of sources) Western church: only 5 Outside the Roman Empire: John from Persia/India Theophilus from the Goths Stratophilus of Georgia
Some 22 of the bishops at the council, led by Eusebius of Nicomedia, came as supporters of Arius. But when some of the more shocking passages from his writings were read, they were almost universally seen as blasphemous. Warren Carroll, The Building of Christendom, p.11 Structured on Baptismal creeds (Mt.28:18 20; 1 Cor.12:4 6, 13) and the Apostles Creed Result: All but 2 bishops signed the Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father [the only-begotten; that is, of the essence [ousia] of the Father, God of God,] Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance [homousious] with the Father; By whom all things were made [both in heaven and on earth]; Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; He suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost. [But those who say: 'There was a time when he was not;' and 'He was not before he was made;' and 'He was made out of nothing,' or 'He is of another substance [hypostasis]' or 'essence [ousia],' or 'The Son of God is created,' or 'changeable,' or 'alterable' they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.]
Orthodox Motivation: Salvation as theosis or theopoiesis (divinization), God recovering human nature That which is not assumed is not healed Athanasius of Alexandria, the Cappadocians, etc. God became man that man might become God Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, ~180 AD
Orthodox Motivation: Salvation as theosis or theopoiesis (divinization), God recovering human nature Movement of God to Human in Christ: He became Flesh (Jn.1:14) Man, Servant (Phil.2:6 8) Sin (2 Cor.5:21) Poor (2 Cor 8:9) Curse (Gal.3:13) Movement of Human to God in Christ: We become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) Atonement: Incarnational, Medical Person of Christ = Work of Christ
Orthodox Motivation: Real Knowledge of God Through the Inhomination of the Word the universal Providence has been made known, and the Leader and Maker of all things, the Word of God himself. For he was made man that we might be made divine (theopoiethemen) and he manifested himself through a body, that we might receive a conception of the invisible Father. (Athanasius, On the Incarnation 54)
Challenges to Nicaea The First Ever Creed : So what? Church: Very decentralized Leadership: No jurisdictions Multiple Schools
The Arian Camp: Asterius the Sophist (d.341), Eusebius of Caesarea (d.340), Eusebius of Nicomedia (d.341) Eusebius of Nicomedia Student of Lucian of Antioch with Arius 328: Persuaded Constantine to readmit Arius, rethink Nicea Allied w Meletians in Egypt 330, 335, 336: Gets opponents exiled (Eustathius, Athanasius, Marcellus) 335/6: Patriarch of Constantinople 337: Baptized Constantine
The Homoiousian Camp: Basil of Caesarea (d.379), Cyril of Jerusalem (d. 386), etc. Basil of Caesarea, initially The Son is of a similar substance as the Father, in essence regarding homoousios itself, because of which I think they are getting up their affair, slandering ousia deeply, in order to leave no room for homoousios (Basil of Caesarea, Epistle 361 to Apollinaris of Laodicea)
The Homoean (Acacian) Camp: Acacius of Caesarea (d.366), etc. Avoid all use of ousia words ousia is not in Scripture homoousious was condemned at the synods of Antioch It confuses people! Perhaps the Son is like the Father (homoiousios) in will but not in nature, because the Father s essence is inexpressible and unknowable Ultimately, using ousia is impertinent speculation
The Marcellans: Marcellus of Ancyra (d. 374), Photinus of Sirmium (d. 376) God was originally one hypostasis (?) Creation: Logos and Spirit went forth from God the Father Christ: a mere man combined with the Logos in some way Eschaton: Jesus and Spirit will merge back (?) with the Father After being deposed, he appealed to Julius of Rome Council of Serdica (343 AD) defends him Condemned later
The Homoian (Anomean and Eunomian) Camp: Aetius (fl. 350) and Eunomius (d.393), etc. The Son is not like the Father in nature (not homoiousios) Eunomius Studied under Aetius in Alexandria Became bishop of Cyzicus, 360 AD Was deposed by the populace for his extreme Arianism 361 AD Pushed the Homoiousians to embrace Nicaea Basil of Caesarea s Against the Eunomians Gregory of Nazianzus First Theological Oration: Against the Eunomians
The Macedonians, or Pneumatomachians (Spirit fighters) Camp: Macedonius (d. after 360) The Son is homoousious with the Father The Spirit is a created angel Subscribed to the Nicene Creed of 325 because of its sparse description of the Holy Spirit
The Meletians: Meletius of Antioch (d. 381) Precise beliefs unknown Pro-Nicene Firm opponent of Arianism But strangely opposed to other bishops known to be Nicene, including the bishop of Antioch
The Apollinarians: Apollinarius of Laodicea (d. 390) Jesus did not have a human mind Pro-Nicene Jesus only had a divine mind Considered an over-reaction to Arian teaching His teaching condemned by a synod in Alexandria under Athanasius in 362 Declared a heresy at the Council of Constantinople in 381
The Emperors: Territories of Constantine II, Constans I, Dalmatius and Constantius II (L to R) Dalmatius killed by his own soldiers (Sep 337) Constans and Constantius divided his territory
Western Emperors Constantine II (337 340): Nicene Julian the Apostate (360 363): not Christian Jovian (363 364): Either? Valentinian (364 375): Nicene Gratian (367 383): Nicene Valentinian II (375 392): Arian Honorius (393 423): Nicene Eastern Emperors Constans (337 350): Nicene Constantius (337 361): Arian Jovian (363 364): Either? Valens (364 378): Arian Theodosius (379 395): Nicene
Athanasius of Alexandria (298 373 AD)
Athanasius of Alexandria (298 373 AD) Deacon, secretary to bishop Alexander at Nicaea, 325 AD Already authored Against the Gentiles and On the Incarnation of the Word Named bishop of Alexandria in May 9, 328 AD First exile to Trier, Germany in 335 337 AD (Constantine) First Synod of Tyre, led by Eusebius in 335 Accused of mistreating Meletians and Arians Charged with threatening to cut off Egyptian grain to Rome Second exile to Rome in 339 346 AD (Constantius) Met with Hosius of Cordoba in Gaul in 343 AD, summoned Council of Serdica (the Eastern bishops left) Serdica vindicated Athanasius and the Nicene Creed
Athanasius of Alexandria (298 373 AD) Third exile to Egyptian desert in 356 362 AD (Constantius) Stayed with monks, maintained contacts Wrote Apology to Constantius, Apology for His Flight, Letter to the Monks, History of the Arians, Four Letters to Serapion on the Holy Spirit, On the Councils of Ariminus and Seleucia Fourth exile to Egyptian desert in 362 363 AD (Julian) Fifth exile in Egypt in 364 366 (Valens)
Athanasius theology of atonement Had it been a case of a trespass only, and not of a subsequent corruption, repentance would have been well enough; but when once transgression had begun men came under the power of the corruption proper to their nature and were bereft of the grace which belonged to them as creatures in the Image of God. No, repentance could not meet the case. What or rather Who was it that was needed for such grace and such recall as we required? Who, save the Word of God Himself, Who also in the beginning had made all things out of nothing? Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, He surrendered His body to death instead of all, and offered it to the Father This He did that He might turn again to incorruption men who had turned to corruption, and make them alive through death by the appropriation of His body and by the grace of His resurrection. Thus He would make death to disappear from them as utterly as straw from fire. (Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 2:8 9; on the nature of corruption see 1:5) Nicaea was safeguarding salvation and atonement
Athanasius use of language for the Father-Son relation Human language as applied to God: Univocal Equivocal Analogical It is more proper to name God Father after the Son than to name Him Creator after His works Use of ousia and homoousios depends on context Substance of an avocado (material) Substance of an argument (immaterial)
Athanasius use of language for the Father-Son relation Theologia as Scientia Scientific thought in Alexandria At its highest point during Athanasius lifetime Anatolius: proper deployment of terms in a scientific and technical frame (T.F. Torrance, Divine Meaning, p.180 1) To Arius: neither godly, nor scientific You are thinking out of a center in yourself When our ordinary terms are applied to God they must be stretched beyond their natural sense and reference and must be employed in such a way that they indicate more than the actual terms can naturally specify. (T.F. Torrance, Divine Meaning, p.204; quoting Athanasius Contra Arianos 1.23; 4.27; De synodis 42; De decretis 12; Ad Marcellinum 11 13; Ad Serapionem 1.8 9, 16 20). See also Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge
Athanasius arrangement of theological principles Rooted in Hebraic concerns Alexandria received Jewish Christian migrants since 70 and 135 AD (Torrance, Divine Meaning, p.179 180) Concern for real history, reasoning from God s activities Perceived the inner structure linking redemption and revelation Son reveals the Father (Mt.11:25 27; Lk.10:21 22) Contra Hellenistic mind in Philo and the Catechetical School Safeguard the true divinity of the Son Believed that essence (ousia) language is the best way Placed the Triune relations (Father, Son, Spirit) within the principle of divine simplicity Condemned both Sabellian and Arian thought
Athanasius manner of influence Educated the Church, did not rely on the Emperors Foresee the cultural pull to Hellenism Deploy the term Arian against all opponents Built or strengthened Latin agreement with Nicaea, conceptually and terminologically Hosius of Cordoba Julius of Rome Hilary of Poitiers (Lewis Ayres, Nicaea and its Legacy, p.182) The Latin West had struggled against the combination of Monarchianism and Adoptionist Christology
Athanasius manner of influence Recognized conceptual (though not terminological) agreement in the Greek East On the Councils 12 (Seleucia) written 360 AD (Ayres, p.171 172) Basil of Caesarea (Ayres, p.172 173) Collaboration (?) Marcellus of Ancyra Egyptian Desert Monks, e.g. Antony of the Desert
Athanasius on the Holy Spirit Four Letters to Serapion, bishop of Thumis in the Nile Delta, who wrote to him about the Pneumatomachians, or the Macedonians, who were Nicene about the Son, but regarded the Spirit as a created and superior angel As then the Father is light and the Son is his radiance we may see in the Son the Spirit also by whom we are enlightened. That he may give you, it says, the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened. But when we are enlightened by the Spirit it is Christ who enlightens us. (Athanasius, Four Letters to Serapion 1.19) From Scripture and function (in salvation) to ontology
Athanasius on the Trinity There is, then, a Triad, holy and complete, confessed to be one God in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, having nothing foreign or external mixed with it, not composed of one that creates, and one that is originated, but all creative; and it is self-consistent and in nature indivisible, and its activity is one. The Father does all things through the Word and in the Holy Spirit. Thus the unity of the holy Triad is preserved. Thus one God is preached in the Church, who is over all, and through all and in all over all as Father, as beginning, as fountain; through all, through the Word; in all, in the Holy Spirit. It is a Triad not only in name and form of speech, but in truth and actual existence. (Athanasius, Four Letters to Serapion 1.20; cf. 1.14)
The Cappadocians (Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus) on the Holy Spirit and the Trinity: Proceeds from the Father (Jn.15:27) What do proceeds and begotten mean in God? The words do not deliver further content Only marks difference in relations and divine persons I have failed to find adequate images (spring, river, water). Rest content with some few words. (Gregory of Nazianzen, Oration 31: On the Holy Spirit)
Called by Emperor Theodosius, May 381 Attended by 150 Nicene bishops and 36 Arian bishops
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons), Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance [homoousious] with the Father; by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; he was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; from thence he shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. In one holy catholic and apostolic Church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Begotten of the Father, the onlybegotten; that is, of the essence [ousia] of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance [homoousious] with the Father; By whom all things were made, both in heaven and on earth; And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, Begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons), Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance [homoousious] with the Father; By whom all things were made;
Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; He suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; From there he shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end.
And in the Holy Ghost. [But those who say: 'There was a time when he was not;' and 'He was not before he was made;' and 'He was made out of nothing,' or 'He is of another substance [hypostasis]' or 'essence [ousia],' or 'The Son of God is created,' or 'changeable,' or 'alterable' they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.] And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, Who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. In one holy catholic and apostolic Church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The emperor enacted a law, prohibiting heretics from holding churches, from giving public instructions in the faith, and from conferring ordination on bishops or others. Some of the heterodox were expelled from the cities and villages, while others were disgraced and deprived of the privileges enjoyed by other subjects of the empire. Great as were the punishments adjudged by the laws against heretics, they were not always carried into execution, for the emperor had no desire to persecute his subjects; he only desired to enforce uniformity of view about God through the medium of intimidation. (Sozomen, Histories, Book 7, chapter 7) On July 30, 381, Theodosius gave all the confiscated Arian property to Gregory of Nazianzus, a Nicene theologian at the time bishop of Constantinople
Arianism among the Goths Ulfilas (311 383 AD) ordained a bishop to the Goths by Eusebius of Nicomedia Devised Gothic alphabet, translated Bible from Greek into Gothic Arian Christianity lasted among the Visigoths until ~600 AD Goths as migrants, soldiers
Arianism lasted in Roman North Africa, Hispania, and Italy Until converted or suppressed in the 700 800 s AD 671 AD: Last Arian kings in Europe Grimwald, King of the Lombards (662 671) and his son Garibald (671)
It was then Saturday, and Arius was expecting to assemble with the church on the day following: but divine retribution overtook his daring criminalities. For going out of the imperial palace, attended by a crowd of Eusebian partisans like guards, he paraded proudly through the midst of the city, attracting the notice of all the people. As he approached the place called Constantine s Forum, where the column of porphyry is erected, a terror arising from the remorse of conscience seized Arius, and with the terror a violent relaxation of the bowels: he therefore enquired whether there was a convenient place near, and being directed to the back of Constantine s Forum, he hastened thither. Soon after a faintness came over him, and together with the evacuations his bowels protruded, followed by a copious hemorrhage, and the descent of the smaller intestines: moreover portions of his spleen and liver were brought off in the effusion of blood, so that he almost immediately died. The scene of this catastrophe still is shown at Constantinople, as I have said, behind the shambles in the colonnade: and by persons going by pointing the finger at the place, there is a perpetual remembrance preserved of this extraordinary kind of death. Socrates Scholasticus (c.380 439), Historia Ecclesiastica
Orthodox Motivation: Salvation as Theosis Incarnational Atonement or Medical Substitution The Person of Christ is the Work of Christ, and vice versa Nicene Trinitarianism: Unity of operations by F, S, Sp (Athanasius onward) No Broken Trinity view (Thomas McCall, Forsaken) Penal substitutionary atonement? Father against Son? Effects Persons (hypostasis, prosopa) are eternal and relational (not atomistic as in Aristotle) A relational human rights ethic to correct Aristotle A coherent answer to the problem of evil
Orthodox Motivation: Real Knowledge of God We really do apprehend God as He is and knows Himself Human language gives limited but real knowledge Effects: Cataphatic (positive) and apophatic (negative) theology Apprehension, not comprehension, and worship Foundation for empirical science Unitary (not dualist) and relational universe Realist mode: We can perceive things as they really are John Philoponus (490 570 AD) of Alexandria James Clerk Maxwell, Michael Polanyi
The significance of the Athanasian method can be indicated by comparing it to the way in which we operate today, not with fixed axioms from which we proceed by logico-deductive processes to conclusions, but with fluid axioms in fieldphysics as progressively refined conceptual instruments by means of which we seek to lay bare the inner intelligible structure of the space-time metrical field in some area of scientific investigation. It was, as far as I am aware, Athanasius who first began to develop this kind of scientific method operating with relational concepts in his attempt to think faithfully and worthily of God in accordance with his nature revealed in Christ (T.F. Torrance, Divine Meaning, p.227)
Theology in Iconography Byzantine Perspective
Theology in Iconography Byzantine Perspective Rublev s Trinity Early 15th century http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2008/07/ notes-on-theology-of-icons-part-4.html
How to Read Scripture: Theological Hermeneutics God eternally as F,S,Sp is a hermeneutical aid to reading 1 Corinthians 8:6 Quoting Deuteronomy 6:4 Philippians 2:5 11 Quoting Isaiah 45:21 23 2 Corinthians 3:17 18 Quoting Exodus 34:33 35
How to Read Scripture: Theological Exegesis Biblical Studies Lexical range of words in their historical and cultural context Systematic Theology Words deployed in a new context: God s Triune being and nature Modern Day Questions Attributes or Activities? Wrath of God (orge not paroxysmos in Rom.1:18 IVP Dictionary of Paul and His Letters) Sovereignty of God Nicene theology is a theological method T.F. Torrance, Divine Meaning: Studies in Patristic Hermeneutics
Christian Mission and Translation Philology the handmaid Basis for alignment of key concepts across languages and cultures Reversal of Babel
God is Father, Jesus is Son Then: There was a time when the Son was not when God was not a Father (Arius) Now: Is God male? Why use the male pronouns? Now: Jesus is Son of God but not God (Jehovah s Witnesses) Now: God is Father, Jesus is Son, and (LDS) Now: God is Love, Love is God